This elegant seated statue of Lady Sennuwy of Asyut is one of the most superbly carved and beautifully proportioned sculptures from the Middle Kingdom. The unknown artist shaped and polished the hard, gray granodiorite with extraordinary skill, suggesting that he was trained in a royal workshop. He has portrayed Sennuwy as a slender, graceful young...
This mirror of Princess Sithathoriunet is a masterpiece of Middle Kingdom art. The mirror itself is made from silver, while the handle is of obsidian. The handle takes the form of a papyrus stem inlaid with gold ending with a double sided face of the goddess Hathor. Through the depiction of the goddess Hathor, the...
This statue of Senusret III sculpted of black granite was found in the forecourt of the temple of Mentuhotep II at Deir el-Bahari. It was one of the six statues that Senusret III dedicated to the temple of his ancestor Mentuhotep. Senusret restored and endowed this temple, which was the site of an important local...
This seated figure’s rank of vizier is confirmed by the cord around his neck from which his official badge or seal would have been suspended. The seal would have been tucked into his kilt for safekeeping. Carved from anorthosite gneiss (also known as Khafre diorite, the material associated with the Old Kingdom king Khafre), the...
This statue depicts Queen Nofret seated upon a throne, adorned with a Hathor wig characterized by three distinct tresses. One voluminous tress cascades down her back, while two wavy strands are drawn forward, wrapped in slender bands that culminate over her breasts in spirals encircling decorative disks. A uraeus—a rearing cobra—rests on her forehead, symbolising...
These exquisite examples of Egyptian wood carving, depicting women bearing offerings, were discovered in a concealed chamber beside the passage leading into the rock-cut tomb of Meketre, the royal chief steward. These two remarkably similar female figures (Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 46725; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 20.3.7) stood flanking a collection of twenty-two intricate models,...
In this relief King Senusret I presents offerings to the god Min-Amun, shown in his ithyphallic form. Min, Egyptian god of fertility. He was invoked for animal, vegetable and human fertility. Min is represented in human form with legs placed close together like those of a mummy and an erect phallus. A flail is depicted...
This remarkable pectoral depicts, on its right side, the god Seth, representing southern Egypt, and on the left, a hieracosphinx symbolising Horus, the divine protector of northern Egypt. At the centre lies an emblem of the goddess Hathor, a motif that was already ancient by the time of the Middle Kingdom. The beautifully worked back...
In this decoration showing the theme of the unification of the Two Lands ‘Sema Tawy’, Horus and Seth replaced Hapi, which was associated with the Nile god. Detail on the side of the throne of King Senusret I. Furthermore, we have here one of the rare cases in which the image of Seth, god of...
Horus was the symbol of the king and his protector, on this pendant amulet he is shown wearing the Double Pschent Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, the symbol of kingship. The falcon’s wings are folded, and he perches on a schematic version of the traditional block border motif. The pendant was formed of two...
